


Daemons at CalSci and in the FBI

by Jestana



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-02 03:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jestana/pseuds/Jestana
Summary: This is my attempt at a daemon!au for Numb3rs.





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't know what a dæmon is, go [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A6mon_\(His_Dark_Materials\)). I'm pretty sure most people know by now, but just in case.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megan meets Larry and his dæmon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The dialogue is taken from _Judgment Call_ , though I tried to put my own spin on it.

Special Agent Megan Reeves stood back as Amita Ramanujan typed away on the computer, her Indian Gray mongoose dæmon, Chiranjivi, perched on the back of her chair as she typed, his head constantly moving, his eyes darting inquisitively around the room. Megan's Abyssinian cat dæmon, Gabriel, perched primly on the desk where Amita was working, copper eyes focused intently on the screen, even though the information was inscrutable to both him and Megan. While Charlie perched on his desk, his Capuchin monkey dæmon, Sophia, hung from the rafters by her tail, also watching Amita work. As she typed, Amita commented, "You know what? It's fun to be doing a little bit of combinatorics again."

"Combina-what?" Gabriel voiced Megan's question, tilting his head to gaze up at the graduate student.

Chiranjivi peered around Amita's head at the cat dæmon as he explained, "Combinatorics. It's a branch of computer science."

"Mmm. Amita's not satisfied with just one measly Ph. D," Charlie put in, smiling proudly as he watched her work. "She's now moved on to astrophysics."

Megan laughed lightly, musing that Charlie reminded her of a father describing his daughter's achievements. "Well, a girl's gotta have skills."

"And yet, somehow, we still get stuck with the typing," Amita added as Chiranjivi chittered up at Sophia.

The Capuchin monkey dropped lightly to the desk, briefly tugging on Amita's hair. "You know he's not familiar with the program like you are."

"Thank you, Sophia." Amita smiled and the dæmon scampered over to perch by Charlie on his desk.

The door opened at that moment, admitting an older man with curly sandy blond hair and a cinnamon-colored ferret dæmon perched on his shoulder. He was carrying a tray of food in his hands. "Well, this is where all the fun is, huh?"

"Professor Fleinhardt, Estelle," Charlie greeted the man, reaching over to pat his unoccupied shoulder.

Chiranjivi straightened up to his full height and called, "Hey, Larry, hey Estelle."

"This is Megan Reeves, she's working with Don," Charlie introduced her. "Gabriel is over there by Amita's computer."

Larry glanced at Megan with a distracted smile, gesturing with his loaded fork. "Oh, hi, I hope you don't mind."

"Oh, no, not at all," she assured him with a smile, glancing down at his tray. "You realize all your food is white?"

Since Larry's mouth was full, Estelle answered for him, gripping his shirt with all four paws. "Mm-hmm, yes, we prefer white food."

"Why is that?" Gabriel asked, sitting up straight as Larry made his way to the seat behind Charlie's desk, clearing it of the stacks of folders and papers.

Larry took over the explanation as Estelle jumped onto one of the stacks on the desk while he sat down in the chair he'd cleared. "Super symmetry. It's a theory that describes the nature of connectivity in complex, multi-dimensional space."

"You know, symmetry is also a term we use in the behavioral science to explain obsessive behavior." She smirked at him as Gabriel dropped into the 'meatloaf' position so he could watch the computer screen and Larry at the same time.

Estelle settled into a comfortable crouch on the stack of folders as Larry answered Megan. "Oh ho, is it now?"

"I have a two-year-old nephew who won't eat anything but pasta with butter," she reported with a quirk of her eyebrows. "We're a little worried that he might be a budding scientist."

Larry smiled, amused, and Charlie hastened to explain with a fond smile, "Larry has a tendency to live out his theories."

"Oh." She nodded, laughing softly.

The next moment, Charlie was all business as he asked, "Amita, are you ready to show us a 3D scatterplot distribution of all the relevant cases?"

"Sure," Chiranjivi answered for her, his head bobbing.

Gabriel peered at the graphic that appeared on the computer screen and glanced back at Megan. "It looks like a random buckshot of points."

"Except for a small number of cases that stand out," Sophia volunteered as Amita pressed a few keys and the graphic changed to show the cases that the Capuchin monkey had meant.

Megan was impressed. "Wow. That' a lot less files than I originally gave you."

"Yeah, and we're not even done yet." Charlie picked up a pad of paper and scribbled something on it. "Amita, do you think you can filter the rest through something like this?"

Charlie handed the paper to Sophia, who carried it over to Amita. She took it and examined whatever Charlie had written onto it, eventually beginning to type it into the computer program. "It looks something like decision theory."

"It's reverse decision theory, actually," Charlie replied.

When Megan glanced at him curiously, Sophia elaborated for him, "In decision theory, options are evaluated by risk and reward."

"Corporations use it to weigh business plans, what products to develop, which companies to do business with," Larry added, gesticulating with his plastic fork.

When Charlie took over the explanation, Megan turned her attention back to him. "Like a hunter, searching for food. He's constantly evaluating his terrain, his available prey, rival predators, weighing them against his own appetite, his own strength, his needs, until he makes what he considers an optimal decision. However, with reverse decision theory--"

"You take the optimal goal and you reverse the process," Estelle was the one who finished the explanation, leaving her pile of folders to jump to Amita's desk so she could see the laptop screen, too.

Gabriel voiced Megan's comprehension of what they'd been explaining, "In other words, you start with the final decision?"

"The murder of Allison Trelane," Chiranjivi volunteered since Amita was busy typing.

Charlie nodded, his expression serious. "That's right. And then determine which predator was most likely, by inclination, by opportunity, to have made that decision."

At that moment, Amita finished typing in the equation and the scatterplot changed once again, this time showing only two points above the others. "Wow, that's _definitely_ a lot fewer files to look at more closely. Thanks, guys."

"No problem, Megan." Charlie smiled bashfully as Megan wrote down the files so she could look at them more closely back at her desk. "I'm happy to help Don."

She nodded as Gabriel delicately wove around the laptop and Estelle to jump down to the floor. "Well, this will certainly be a _big_ help in cracking the case."

"Let us know if there's anything else we can do to help," Sophia told her as she scooped up Gabriel and settled him across her shoulders to better avoid the foot traffic in the corridors.

Gabriel answered for both of them as she opened the door. "We certainly will. See you later!"

With that, they left the office and headed out to the parking lot. "I saw that, you know."

"Saw what?" Gabriel asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could.

Megan nodded and smiled to the passing students. "The way you brushed against Estelle. We just met them."

"You _do_ realize you were flirting with Larry, right?" Gabriel asked, jumping down from her shoulders once they'd exited the building. "And don't try to tell me it's like teasing the brother we never had. That's Colby and you acted nothing like that with him."

She glanced down at her dæmon with an amused smile. "It was just harmless flirting. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Right. You keep telling yourself that." Gabriel fell silent as they continued on towards the car.

Megan sighed and shook her head. She waited until they'd reached the car and she'd unlocked the door. "He's not exactly my type."

"You haven't been very successful with your ' _type_ ' before now," Gabriel pointed out, jumping up onto the driver's seat and gracefully stepped across to the passenger seat. "Maybe it's time to change your ' _type_ '."

She slid behind the wheel and closed her door. "Let's get a bit more settled in the area first, okay?"

"Whatever." Gabriel settled into the meatloaf position as Megan started the car.

Megan smiled fondly, reaching over to stroke him before backing out of the parking space. She couldn't imagine being without him. He always helped her put things into perspective.


	2. Relationships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Colby and Megan go to Cal Sci to give Charlie some information from their latest case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This kicked off my daemon au, but it I posted it second because it fits better chronologically.

When Megan entered the Cal Sci mathematics and science complex with Colby, she hardly noticed when her Abyssinian dæmon, Gabriel, jumped up and draped himself across her shoulders to avoid being trampled by students going and coming. Colby's coyote dæmon, Sela, trotted along behind them, large enough that the substantial foot traffic didn't bother her. _There are times I wish I'd settled as something a little larger._

_Don't worry about it, Gabe._ Megan reached up to stroke his ears and he purred. _We manage just fine._

He licked her ear and she shivered at the touch of his rough tongue. _I can't help it, when Sela's being so smug._

Megan glanced over to see the coyote's tongue lolling in a canine grin. _Oh, Colby complains often enough when she's a little too big and you're just the right size._

_Advantages and disadvantages, then?_ Gabriel purred once more.

She smiled, but didn't respond as they reached Charlie's office. Inside, the young man was busy at one chalkboard, while his capuchin monkey dæmon, Sophia, wrote on another. Larry sat in a chair, stroking his ferret dæmon, Estelle, in absent thought. Suddenly, Charlie broke off in his writing and turned to the other board. "No, no, no, not _that_ equation."

"This is the best way to help Don and Vivian," Sophia shot back, holding tightly to the piece of chalk in her paws when Charlie tried to take it away. "Using the other equation won't get us anywhere. This one will."

Charlie sighed, running a hand through his hair and unwittingly smearing chalk dust through it. "How can you be so sure?"

"You haven't considered all the variables, have you?" Sophia propped her hands on her monkey hips, sounding exasperated. She turned to the older professor. "Larry, tell him!"

The astrophysicist blinked and paused in his stroking of Estelle. "Tell who what?"

At that moment, Colby knocked on the door, drawing the others' attention. "Sorry to break up the family moment, but we found something that you four might find useful."

He offered a notebook of information to Charlie while Sophia jumped down from the stool she'd been using and loped over to greet Sela and stroke her dark fur, to rumblings of pleasure from the coyote dæmon. Gabriel jumped down from Megan's shoulders and purred as Estelle met him halfway, the two gently butting heads and rubbing against each other. Larry got up to peer over Charlie's shoulder at the notebook, and then glanced at the chalkboards. "Charles..."

"I know, Larry." Charlie sighed, rubbing his forehead and smearing chalk dust across it. "Sophia was right and I was wrong."

"See?" Megan wasn't sure how a monkey could manage to look smug, but Sophia managed it, even perched as she was on Sela's back.

"So, any idea how much more time you're going to need?" Colby asked, tilting his head. "It's kind of urgent."

Charlie shrugged, turning to his board and erasing his work. As he began to copy the equation Sophia had been working on, his dæmon answered for him, "Maybe a few more hours. Depends on if he'll listen to me next time we have a difference of opinion."

"You're a fine one to talk," Charlie muttered, even as he began to continue working on the equation. "You don't even tell me when I've spelled something wrong."

She jumped from Sela's back to Charlie's desk, stalking across it and jumping onto his shoulder. "Don't blame _me_ for our horrible spelling. We're bound to be horrible at something."

As the two continued to bicker good-naturedly, Larry gently herded the two FBI agents out of Charlie's office and into the hallway. "I will never understand how he accomplishes anything with all the arguing they do."

"It's just the way they are, Larry," Estelle commented from her perch on his shoulder. "You'll notice that she never interferes with his teaching."

"Just his calculations," Colby offered with a good-natured grin, reaching down to stroke Sela's head as they moved down the hall towards Larry's office. He turned to Megan. "Did you want to ride back to the office with me?"

Megan shook her head and Gabriel answered for her, "No, we'll take our lunch now and hopefully bring Charlie's results back with us afterwards."

"Right." Sela's tongue lolled out again, but neither made any other comment as they turned and continued down the hall.

Larry turned to her with an amused smile. "Would you like to have lunch with us?"

"You read my mind." She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. Perched on their shoulders as they were, Estelle and Gabriel nuzzled each other.

After the kiss, Larry's cheeks were fetchingly pink. "Have you been to Pie and Burger yet?"

"I don't believe so," she answered after a moment's thought.

Smiling shyly, he offered her his hand and they followed Colby from the building.


	3. Birth of a Partnership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie can't help Ray Ray crunch some numbers, but Oswald can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for _Hardball_ , _Democracy_ , _Velocity_ , and _Breaking Point_.

"Hey, Charlie, do you have a minute?" Professor Ray Galuski poked his head into the math professor's office.

Though the human set his chalk down and turned to face Ray, the Capuchin monkey dæmon continued to scribble away on her chalkboard. "Yeah, what's up?"

"I had an idea for a new race car and I was hoping you could help me crunch the numbers." The taller man entered the office fully, his ruby-throated hummingbird dæmon flitting in to dart curiously around the room.

Charlie glanced at the blackboards half-covered with his equations and those of his dæmon's. "I'm sorry, Ray, but I'm a bit busy with a case for Don."

"Oh." The hummingbird flitted back to land on Ray's shoulder. "Do you know someone else who might be able to help me out with the numbers? I'm better at building, but I just got this design and I don't want to give up on it."

There was another knock on the door the next moment. "Professor Eppes?"

"Come in, Oswald!" Charlie called as Ray moved further into the room.

A skinny young man with a gecko dæmon perched on his shoulder eased into the room. "Oh! I didn't know you had company. I can come back later."

"No, actually, your timing couldn't have been better," Charlie assured the young man as his dæmon set down her chalk and leapt onto his shoulder. "Oswald, I'd like you to meet Dr. Ray Galuski and Dora. He teaches engineering here at CalSci. Ray, this is Oswald Kittner and Phyllis. One of the brightest math students I've ever taught."

Ray offered his hand to Oswald. "Nice to meet you."

"Good to meet you, too." The student shook the professor's hand.

Dora took off from Ray's shoulder and flitted around the young man curiously. "Charlie, do you think Oswald could help us out?"

"Exactly." Sophia, Charlie's dæmon nodded, a suggestion of a grin on her face. "Like he said, Oswald here is extremely bright."

Oswald ducked his head bashfully while Phyllis answered, "We're not bright."

"You don't have to be a genius to be good at math." Charlie patted Oswald's back, and then glanced at Ray. "Why don't you just show him what you need help with?"

Ray nodded and offered Oswald the file folder of design notes. "Sure, no problem."

"A race car?" Phyllis asked as Oswald began to pore over the notes, completely losing his self-consciousness as he became absorbed in the problem.

While Ray nodded again, Dora explained, "Yeah, we're trying for a design that's as aerodynamic as possible while still remaining sleek and stylish."

"I haven't taken any engineering classes yet," Oswald admitted, glancing shyly up at Ray. "I'd still like to take a crack at it, though."

Charlie had peered over Oswald's shoulder at the paperwork himself. "I think you'll be fine. You came up with those sabermetric equations without studying at all."

"That's because it was baseball." Phyllis tightened her grip on Oswald's hooded sweatshirt when he shrugged.

The math professor patted his student's shoulder. "It'll be easy for you. I'm sure of it."

"Let me know if you need more info, Oswald," Ray told the young man, grinning. "I'll just leave you two math geeks to it."

Oswald nodded, shaking Ray's hand. "See you, Professor."

"Please, call me Ray Ray." He chuckled as Dora settled on his shoulder once again.

Another nod from Oswald. "See you, Ray Ray."

"Thanks for your help, both of you." Ray turned and left Charlie's office.

After Ray had gone, Charlie turned to Oswald. "Sorry about sidetracking you like that. Did you have a question?"

"Um, no, I can't remember if I did." The young man smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Charlie."

The professor waved it off with a smile. "Don't worry about it. Go work on Ray Ray's design."

"Yes, Sir!" Grinning, Oswald disappeared out the door, eager to really _look_ at the numbers.

* * *

Oswald hesitated at the door with Professor Galuski's name on it, not sure if he should knock or not. _You have the information for him. Knock!_

"Right." The young man raised his hand and knocked on the door.

It opened a minute later to reveal Ray Galuski. His faded T-shirt and jeans were heavily stained with what Oswald assumed were various fluids from working on cars. There were splotches of some black substance on his hands and a similar one decorated his forehead. "Oh, hi, Oswald."

"Hi, Professor Galuski." He lifted his free hand in a half-hearted wave. "I hope I didn't catch you at a bad moment."

The professor shook his head and Dora flitted up over his shoulder to hover in front of Oswald's face. "No, we were just cleaning up. Come on in."

"Okay, thanks." Oswald followed the teacher into the office.

Ray walked over to the sink in the corner and turned on the water. "So, what brings you to my office?"

"I, uh, did some number crunching on that race car design," he replied, looking around at the clutter of machine parts and model cars all over the office. "The design is good, but it doesn't take into account some of the safety measures NASCAR has in place."

Dora perched briefly on the bird feeder hanging in the window. "Really? How so?"

"Well, they have a cap on the power of the engine for a reason, Professor." He sat down on the edge of one the chairs facing the desk. "If the drivers take some of those tight turns too fast, they'd fly right off the track."

The professor grunted, turning off the water and reaching for the hand towel beside the sink. "So I'd have to rework my design within those safety parameters."

"Yeah, pretty much, and any mathematician could tell you this," he admitted, stifling a snicker when he realized that there was still grease smeared across Professor Galuski's forehead.

Ray nodded, dropping into the other chair facing the desk. "Speaking of math geeks, how did you meet Charlie? One of your professors?"

"No, actually, I didn't start at CalSci until after I met Professor Eppes." He blushed as Phyllis curled comfortingly around his neck. "His brother, Don, was investigating the death of Vick Johnston and one of their leads was some sabermetric equations I'd developed to help me identify players who were juicin'."

Dora flitted over to perch on Ray's shoulder. "Oh, yeah, we read about that a few years back. His death led to a whole scandal about his agent and the fact that all his clients were juicing."

"Yeah, that's how we met." Phyllis uncurled a little, slowly moving to sit on Oswald's shoulder. "My best friend found my equations on my laptop and sent them to Vick to confront him about the juicin'. The FBI got a copy of those equations and asked Professor Waldie to do some looking and he found where I'd posted them on a fantasy baseball forum."

Professor Galuski gave him an admiring look. "Damn, that's a way more interesting story than mine. I just met him at a faculty mixer my first semester here as a teacher."

"Considering I got shot at because I was part of that case, I'd rather have met Charlie as a professor." Oswald sighed, absently reaching up to touch the spot where the bullet had grazed him that day.

The professor winced sympathetically. "Yeah, I can understand that."

After a few moments of silence, Phyllis offered, "We had a few ideas for improving your design, if you're interested."

"Oh, yeah, totally." Ray's face seemed to light up at that.

Smiling shyly, Oswald pulled out his notes to show to Professor Galuski, musing that he was almost as easy to talk to as Charlie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mostly wrote this so people could meet Ray and Oswald's daemons.


	4. On the Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crystal Hoyle and Buck Winters case affected a lot of people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a brand-spanking-new story. After posting the three previous chapters, I really wanted to write more in this 'verse, mainly to introduce the other daemons. So here we go.

"17 years old and his future is already a foregone conclusion," Larry mused, sitting back a little so the waitress could take his cleared plate. Estelle took that opportunity to jump into his lap, her little head poking up over the edge of the table. "I mean, how fearsome a thought that is, that a single choice can determine a destiny."

Megan looked up from toying with the last few bites of her food, curious as to where he was going with this train of thought. "Buck Winters or Crystal Hoyle's destiny?"

"One is essentially a child, the other a fully-formed adult." Estelle answered for Larry, who'd taken a bite of his toast.

She held up his finger as she reminded them: "Formed around a 15-year-old girl who made the sort of bad decisions a 15-year-old girl can make, and then those decisions stay with you for the rest of your life."

"I am detecting here, an authority that transcends the theoretical." He looked expectantly at her, but without pressure, idly stroking Estelle's head.

Megan ducked her head sheepishly, remembering her adolescence. Gabriel delicately stepped into her lap and butted his head against her chin, purring. Stroking him, she said, "Well, I didn't run away from home, but I didn't walk, either. Unlike Crystal, I can live with all of my decisions. I don't even regret most of them." She paused a moment and looked at him, a little shy. "Does that make you uncomfortable?"

"Listen, I live in hotel rooms, I sleep on office sofas. Does that make you uncomfortable?" Larry eyed her just as shyly, as if afraid she would say yes.

Laughing, Gabriel told them, "No, we find it oddly attractive."

"You continually put us in mind of the M-57 nebula." Larry replied with a laugh of his own, though the blush didn't leave his cheeks, gesturing to illustrate his point as he continued. "Both of you with these layers upon layers of endless complexity."

She grinned cheekily in reply. This was one of the things she liked about Larry Fleinhardt. His comparisons and analogies were so unique and so very him. "You know, I don't think I'm ever gonna tire of being compared to the M-57 nebula."

"Thank you for joining us for breakfast." Gabriel poked his head up above the table to address Larry. "We were way too wound up to go home." He smiled the shy, adorable smile that she liked so much and they finished eating in silence.

After Megan had paid the check and they were walking out of the restaurant with Gabriel and Estelle riding on their shoulders, she told him, "Hey, you should give me a call when your orbit comes back around." She carefully nudged her shoulder with his, giving their daemons the chance to nuzzle each other in farewell. "Maybe towards _my_ place sometime."

They walked towards their separate cars, Megan digging her keys out of her purse. A chill ran down her spine when a voice commented from behind her, "Not exactly the kind of guy I pictured you with." Megan reached into her purse for her gun while Gabriel jumped down to the ground, growling. "I really wouldn't if I were you." Her hand still on her gun, she turned to face Crystal and saw that she was holding a hand grenade. By her feet, her red fox daemon had his teeth bared, snarling at Gabriel. "You know who I am, you know what I'm capable of." She pulled the pin, only her grip on the grenade keeping it from going off. "We live or we die: it's your choice."

Megan reluctantly handed over her purse, feeling naked without it. As Crystal checked the purse, she asked, "What do you want to do? You want to live or you want to die?"

"What I want is you to get in the car and drive." She stepped close to her, clearly not intimidated by the fact that Megan was an FBI agent and could probably take her down easily if she didn't have the grenade.

Gabriel yowled and lashed out at the fox. He snapped at Gabriel and Megan gasped at the pain in her side from the contact. Keeping an eye on Crystal, Megan bent and scooped up Gabriel, cradling him against her chest for a moment before opening the car and climbing in. Crystal climbed into the back, still holding the grenade. As she drove off, her heart thrummed in her chest. She should have seen this coming: a hostage for a hostage.

* * *

When Don entered the motel room, his heart jumped into his throat at the sight of Megan on the floor, blood pooling under her left arm. Making a soft chuffing sound, his leopard daemon, Vivian, walked over to paw at a cat carrier sitting against the motel room wall. She looked up at him. "Gabriel's in here."

"She's cut, guys," Don told the others as they followed him in. David bent to help him with Megan while his wolf daemon, Madeleine, and Colby's Sela systematically sniffed the room. Colby and Ian moved across the room to check the bathroom. "Hey, Megan, can you hear me?"

Megan moved her head sluggishly while Nina, Edgerton's peregrine falcon, swooped to the window. "Silver pontiac. I need to take your vehicle."

"No, no, no." Don shook his head, looking up to see that Colby had taken the top off the cat carrier. Vivian delicately scooped Gabriel's limp form up in her mouth. "We gotta get her to a hospital. She's bleeding out, here. She doesn't have much time."

"Stay with us," David told her as Vivian set Gabriel on Megan's stomach. He barely managed to curl into a ball, purring faintly.

Madeleine trotted over, reporting her findings. "Crystal paced between the windows. Megan was kept handcuffed to the pipe."

Sela growled, looking over at the carrier. "And she kept Gabriel in the carrier just far enough away to be uncomfortable."

"I'll get the door to the car." Colby and Sela rushed out of the room to the parking lot.

Edgerton followed Colby and Nina took off into the sky with a screech. Don and David carefully carried Megan out of the room. "LAPD will be here in two minutes."

"She doesn't _have_ two minutes," David yelled back at him as Madeleine joined Sela in blocking Edgerton from approaching Don's SUV.

Vivian joined the coyote and wolf, her fur bristling. Edgerton held up his hands reluctantly. He looked up at where Nina wheeled just overhead. She disappeared from view. Even knowing Edgerton was separated from his daemon, it was still unsettling to see him without her. "Fine."

"Go, let's go. We got you, Megan."

* * *

"I understand I have you to thank for the others finding me so quickly?" Megan commented to Charlie as Larry hesitated in the doorway to her hospital room, Estelle curled around his neck out of deference to the pot of white tuberoses he carried.

Charlie ducked his head bashfully. "Well, they did the actual work. I just gave them an idea of where to start looking for you."

"Hey, Larry, Estelle." Gabriel greeted them from his place curled up in Megan's lap. She stroked him steadily as she talked to Charlie, who stood on the other side of the bed.

Sophia chittered from the railing at the foot of the bed. "C'mon in, Larry. I'm sure Megan and Gabriel are happy to see you.

"She's right," Megan tried to shift position and didn't quite stifle a gasp of pain. "It's wonderful to see you both."

Larry moved further into the room, setting the tuberoses on the table next to the bed. "Are you hurt very badly?"

"Just some cuts and bruises," Megan assured him as Estelle jumped onto the bed to nuzzle Gabriel. "I'll be out of here in no time."

He took her hand in both of his, only vaguely aware that Charlie had collected Sophia and left the room. "Please don't push yourself, Megan. I know this case is important, but so is your health."

"We were so worried," Estelle added, washing Gabriel's face with her little pink tongue. "We couldn't even help Charlie and Sophia like we usually do."

Larry froze, mortified that Estelle had let that particular fact slip. When he made himself look at Megan, she had a smile on her face. "I find that oddly flattering." She stroked his cheek. "You know, there's a reason FBI agents are taken off cases that involve family or loved ones."

"I-I had heard something along those lines." Larry covered Megan's hand with his, smiling shyly. "I'm relieved that you're not offended that we couldn't help."

Gabriel looked up from giving a Estelle a bath in return. "I don't think you really _can_ offend us, Larry. It's not in your nature."

"Should we take that as a compliment?" Estelle wondered, sitting up on her hind legs.

Megan laughed softly when Gabriel batted at Estelle, making her lose her balance and fall over on the bed. As they began to wrestle, she leaned against Larry's shoulder. "It was meant as a compliment, by the way."

"I hoped it was." Larry rested his cheek against Megan's hair, relieved that she was alive.

* * *

"Hey, Charlie." Alan announced his arrival at the door to Charlie's office.

By Alan's feet, his black beaver daemon sat up on her hindquarters. "Hi, Sophia."

"Alan, Adara!" Sophia jumped down from her perch near the ceiling and loped over to hug Adara. "What are you doing here?"

Alan shrugged as Charlie waved from where he was cleaning off the chalkboard. "We heard the case was solved, so we thought we'd come treat you to dinner."

"Y'know, dinner sounds _great_ ," Charlie replied, putting down the eraser and wiping chalk dust off his hands. "You didn't happen to see Larry or Megan, did you?"

After a moment's thought, Alan shook his head, as did Adara. "To be fair, our focus was finding you two."

"We figured you'd gotten so wrapped up in the case that you forgot to eat." Adara poked Sophia, who shied away and climbed up to perch on Charlie's shoulder in her usual spot.

He had the grace to look sheepish as he picked up his bag and slung it over his other shoulder. "Yeah, um, there should be somewhere open nearby."

"Let's go, then." Alan gestured impatiently for Charlie to follow him and Adara even slapped the floor with her tail.

Laughing, Charlie turned off the light and followed his father from the room. Together, they walked through the mostly-empty halls of CalSci. "Have you seen Don and Vivian?"

"No, should I have?" Alan asked, exchanging a glance with Adara, who shuffled along next to them.

Charlie shrugged, making Sophia chitter at him when she had to reach down to grip his jacket with her forepaws. "He hasn't said anything, but I think this case was kind of hard on him. You remember what it was like when Billy and Rhona came back. This was kind of the same thing."

"Knowing them, they'll be at the house by now," Adara suggested as they pushed open the doors to the building and stepped out into the warm evening.

Curling her tail around Charlie's arm to keep it from getting caught in anything, Sophia added, "Maybe we should just get takeout and eat at home."

"That's an idea," Charlie agreed, surprising Alan and Adara into staring at him. "What?"

Alan chuckled. "Nothing. Yeah, takeout sounds--"

"Wait, is that--" Sophia interrupted, stretching up as tall as she could go.

Charlie glanced up at her, and then closed his eyes so he could see what she was seeing. A grin spread across his face and he opened his eyes. "Look that way, Dad."

"What am I looking for?" Alan asked, even as he turned to follow Charlie's directions. "Oh."

Larry and Megan stood at the other end of the quad, holding each other quite close. Estelle and Gabriel were indistinguishable from each other at their feet. "Let's go this way."

"Yeah, don't want to disturb them." Alan and Adara followed Charlie from the quad. "Well, guess we don't have to worry about Megan at least."

Charlie and Sophia were grinning at Alan. "We've been waiting for them to get around to that for _months_. Took them long enough."

"And when are you and Colby going to get your acts together?" Adara asked. If her joints worked that way, she'd have put her hands on her hips.

Charlie blinked down at her, pink suffusing his cheeks. "What?"

"Hush, Adara. Let's just go get some takeout and see how Donnie is doing, alright?"

"Sounds perfect."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, Buck's daemon is a hyena, Coop's is a panther, and Margaret's was a sea otter named Zaccheus. For Edgerton, I figure he's either the son of a witch or he decided to separate from Nina because it would help him with his work.


End file.
